Health: Do it Right

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Why Give a Damn:

If you’re a start up and you don’t have a real, working application to help your employees nurture health first; before bringing clean water to a village, before providing food for the hungry, then you’re doing something wrong.

The author of this post, Ann Garvin is an author, speaker and professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy.

If health is not your top priority then you have your priorities wrong. Yup, I said it. Wrong. Sorry, but this is not a time for mincing words.

If health is not your top priority then you have your priorities wrong. Tweet This Quote

If you’re a start up and you don’t have a real, working application to help your employees nurture health first; before bringing clean water to a village, before providing food for the hungry, then you’re doing something wrong. If you’re orienting staff, writing a mission statement, getting year end goals in line and you’re leaving health up to the individual, not making health a part of your start-up plan, well you’re doing it wrong.

Here’s how I know. I have the flu. Here’s the score: Flu 4 (days). Productivity 0 (days).

The flu is everywhere but not nearly as prevalent as heart disease. Heart Disease afflicts every other or every third person in the room. That means every third person in the room is sick, less productive and on their way to the hospital where productivity is zero.

Look around, look in the mirror. Is it you? Is it your favorite employee?

Prioritize health because if you don’t you ARE prioritizing sickness. Tweet This Quote

Here’s how I know you don’t prioritize health. When your schedule gets busy you stop sleeping and exercising and start eating Twizzlers for dinner. You rely on Starbucks to get you through the day, you drink too much alcohol to relax and don’t even get me started on fast food. Once every few months, fine. Once a week, you’re on your own.

How can I be so sure? Because I have the same impulse to slash health behaviors because they are so freaking time consuming.

Author Ann Garvin

Ann is an author, speaker and educator. As professor of health, stress management, research methods and media literacy at University of Wisconsin Whitewater, she has worked extensively in psychometrics, statistics and psychology. Ann is the author of On Maggie’s Watch & The Dog Year (Berkley Penguin, 2014).